Random Ramblings

If you got more than 2 years, you went beyond the average life expectancy of most laptops. 8 years is unheard of.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

If you got more than 2 years, you went beyond the average life expectancy of most laptops. 8 years is unheard of.

If you keep one clean both from viruses/malware and keep it stored in a bag so it stays free from dust, they will last.

I honestly think that upgrading it to Windows 10 is what did it in.

Windows 10 is the antichrist of OS's.

I did everything I could think of to keep all my computers clean and in good shape, yet even the most expensive one I bought only lasted 4 years. Now that doesn't mean I trash them when they kick the bucket, some I did work on and replaced hard drives and such. But I once read in PC World back in the mid 2000s that the average hard drive only has a lifespan of 2 years. And I believe it.

We have one laptop that is getting closer to 12 years old that still works.  It is old and slow, but my wife uses it mostly with her camera and viewing/mild editing of photos she has taken.

I've had my work PC for 4 years, no issues.  My home PC is several years old, too.

I have a laptop that is about 10 - 14 years old and runs okay.  I just use it for typing and nothing else.  The battery is dead though, so I have to plug it in every time I use it... oh, and it weighs a ton!

I think the lifespan of computers is more a measure of how long until they become too slow or incompatible with software.  Our house is a computer retirement home (hot really a graveyard because most of them still work).  In the past 20 years or so, we've only had one laptop display become unusable and one laptop overheat and fry the hard drive (a design flaw in the early Gateway slims).  All of our other upgrades have come because they became too slow to do the work we needed them to do.

I just ordered new checks.  I have some cool Star Trek designs.  However, I am switching things up and getting wild this time by purchasing Star Wars checks.  Yes, I am just that cool.  It isn't easy being me!

alldatndensum wrote:

I just ordered new checks.  I have some cool Star Trek designs.  However, I am switching things up and getting wild this time by purchasing Star Wars checks.  Yes, I am just that cool.  It isn't easy being me!

Star Wars? That's the live long and prosper guy, right?

My laptop is a 2010 MacBook Pro and shows no signs of giving up. My brother, who owned it before me, swapped in an SSD as the main drive, for speed and reliability, and added a larger HDD as a storage drive. This came at the cost of the DVD drive, but I borrowed my brother's external drive to make up for it. My old 2008 MBP still lives, although it's decrepit, for recording sermon audio at my brother's church.

Two nights of Vacation Bible School down and 3 to go!  I love doing the music with the kids, but this year I definitely am feeling older.  I am sore tonight from all the hand motions and even footwork with the kids.  I try to come in with 110% energy for the kids so that they will want to come back each night to learn about Jesus. 

My wife and I LOVE VBS!!!!  She has been our VBS director at church now for three years.  I've been doing the music for 7.  I used to do games and have even taught a class or two.  I'd rather be doing the music.

Quote :

I think the lifespan of computers is more a measure of how long until they become too slow or incompatible with software.  

This !

It's cool to do VBS.
What's the theme of the VBS this year?
I remember from years ago there was a theme.

alldatndensum wrote:

Two nights of Vacation Bible School down and 3 to go!  I love doing the music with the kids, but this year I definitely am feeling older.  I am sore tonight from all the hand motions and even footwork with the kids.  I try to come in with 110% energy for the kids so that they will want to come back each night to learn about Jesus. 

My wife and I LOVE VBS!!!!  She has been our VBS director at church now for three years.  I've been doing the music for 7.  I used to do games and have even taught a class or two.  I'd rather be doing the music.

Our VBS was about a month ago.  It was great but odd.  Our children's pastor's husband took another job in San Diego so she stepped down at the end of April, leaving our interim children's pastor (who had never led VBS before) to handle it at that point.  There didn't seem to be a whole lot of communication between the two of them about this, so there was a lot that fell through the cracks.  Still, it was great.  I've been a crew leader for my kids' groups for the past several years.  I started doing my older kid's group a couple of years ago because there was a set of triplets there that were nearly the spawn of Satan and I was able to handle them.  They left our church last year, but their mom was still committed to lead a station so they still came.  That changed this year, so I think next year I'm going to do a station or music or something different.  The interim had suggested that she was going to suggest to the new director of children's ministries that she should recruit me to be director next year, so maybe that's what I'll be doing.  Who knows.  VBS is super important to me because I came to Christ at VBS about 37 years ago.

That's cool!

I do not want the burden of being the director.  I'll help in any way that I can, but I hate the planning stages.  My wife loves shopping through the different curriculum out there, picking the theme based on the music and Bible stories, and shopping for decorations & craft ideas.  She's learned where to buy so that we don't hit the ceiling of our VBS budget yet still manages to make things run smoothly and look awesome.  I put pictures of our decorations on Facebook last night if you want to see.  Our VBS stuff came from Cokesbury this year and has a super hero theme.

We usually try to stay away from Lifeway with their VBS stuff.  Oh, we have nothing against it.  It is just that so many churches around here will do that one.  We try to use something different just to attract different kids.  I know that many families will send their kids to VBS at different churches just to get a couple of hours away from the children, and they will pick a church that is doing something that the kids haven't done already.  Thus, we stay away from Lifeway.

I survived VBS!!!

I've sang all the songs and taught them to the kids!  I am the big dorky fun guy who does all the hand motions and dance moves with them.  I even let them get up on the stage and they love it!

We feed all the kids every night so mom's don't have to.  I asked for volunteers to say the blessing before we ate.  I bribed them with a free fidget spinner!  I got me some pray-ers!

I am exhausted, but I loved every minute.  I am sad that it is over.

That won't last long because I am off to church camp with the kids next week.  That's a youth pastor's life!

I'm glad you enjoyed doing VBS. It sounds like you had a good programme and did it well to boot. I know I probably never could do VBS and enjoy it.

Had a work party today. It was ok, but I left not too long in. Most people were already talking to each other, as they've been working together for a while, and I felt kind of left out by default - not by a conscious exclusion, but after a while I had no one to talk to, and even less energy to talk. I ended up leaving and going to a café down the road where one of my friends works, and invited my girlfriend to come visit at the café. That was much more fun.

Quote :

I'm glad you enjoyed doing VBS. It sounds like you had a good programme and did it well to boot. I know I probably never could do VBS and enjoy it.

I loved VBS when I was a child!  I can remember that one lady who came and picked us up to take to her church for VBS had this Cadillac.....with AIR CONDITIONING.  It was the first car I ever rode in that had it.  Being poor, it was air conditioned and a CADILLAC.  It was like a VBS limo service for me.

So, first you have to love VBS whether you caught the bug as an adult or as a child.  The 2nd thing required is a love for kids which my wife and I share.  Third, and most importantly, you have to love Jesus and realize that today's children are really the front line as far as sharing your faith with them.  When our media, high school, college professors, and peer pressure get through with them, you won't get many chances in life to tell them that Jesus loves them.  VBS is an intense week where you can tell them and show them.  I love it!

I am off to church camp with the kids this week.  Hold down the fort while I am gone!

My home desktop tanked this weekend.  I think it was nearly 12 years old so it probably had a decent run.  That leaves me without a computer until I can get it replaced and set up my my office tech support (probably sometime next week).

12 years is indeed impressive ! Was it Win XP ?

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

12 years is indeed impressive ! Was it Win XP ?

It actually started out as Vista, but was immediately replaced with XP....later was upgraded to Windows 7.  It was actually a computer at my office back when it was first purchased (and HP compaq model....actually in 2007....so it was only 10 years old).  Given as much work as it did I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. I'm almost certain none of the hardware was replaced in it either.

I finally got my very first set of worship flags. I'm so excited!!

Oh, and my spiritual parents are taking me to International House of Prayer in Kansas City for my 40th birthday next month. I have been waiting 5 years for this.

Saw that on facebook the other day, very cool.  Now you gotta get really good at it and make some videos!

I don't have a video camera. Or a smartphone. So that's not happening.

Ah bummer.